Bizspace Spotlight

Between the massive growth on U Street, at Gallery Place, in Shaw, Columbia Heights, Petworth and the Capitol Riverfront, it should come as no surprise that development along Metro's Green Line has boomed in the last decade. Now there's a report to prove it.

The study, performed by consultant Robert Charles Lesser & Co. LLC for the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District, found the Green Line to be the "preferred corridor" for the younger urban set. It is adding more multifamily units, more high-paying jobs, and more high-income residents than virtually any other Metro-lined corridor in the Washington area.

Is it any wonder, given that Anacostia, Congress Heights and Fort Totten were left out, that the results skewed so positive?

Shyam Kannan, a principal with Robert Charles Lesser, said the firm was trying to focus on locations that feature similar characteristics — comparing the targeted Green Line neighborhoods, for example, with Northwest D.C. Red Line communities, or those along the Orange Line in Arlington.

"What we're hoping this is the first step, and we are really looking forward to continuing this analysis, not only in Anacostia but all the way to Branch Avenue," Kannan said.

In any case, the report highlights neighborhoods along a Metro line whose reputation is often besmirched. The evidence, say the people behind the study, demonstrates that reputation is not deserved.

The Green Line, Kannan said, "is the regional economic engine we need to focus on over the next two decades." Michael Stevens, executive director of the Capitol Riverfront BID, projected the Navy Yard/Nationals Park community will see 4,000 residents by the end of 2012, a "significant milestone," and 5,000 by 2015.

By the numbers, per the study:

In the 2000s, the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor on the Orange Line added 3,395 18- to 34-year-old households, while the Red Line in Northwest D.C. added 2,354. Within a quarter-mile of the Green Line stations studied, 3,466 such households moved in.

Condominium prices in Columbia Heights fall only 11 percent shy of those in Dupont Circle. In 1995, a condo in Columbia Heights cost nearly 60 percent less than one in Dupont.

The study predicts market-driven demand for 8,100 housing units, 4.35 million square feet of office space and 400,000 square feet of retail space in the Green Line study area.

"The connection to the Green Line and its aforementioned competitive advantages, combined with its ample development capacity compared with other parts of the District and the region, position the Capitol Riverfront as a primary 'receiving zone' for this development energy," the study concluded.

The report wouldn't have been so rah-rah (new development projected to take place in the study area could generate $2.32 billion! in additional tax revenue over the next 20 years), if it took into account other Green Line stations within the District. That said, the growth over the last decade is undeniable.

Perhaps that success will spread north and east as developers eye untapped, less expensive emerging neighborhoods for new construction.